1,070 research outputs found
Floating WIM Threshold Concept for Truck Weight Enforcement
No full textWeigh stations are the primary weight compliance checkpoints for commercial trucks. In the past several decades, states have used weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology to reduce delay and increase enforcement on overweight vehicles. This study offers a detailed analysis of weigh station systems and presents floating-threshold algorithms to improve the efficiency of WIM equipped weigh stations.
This research evaluates weigh station design and operational parameters using queueing theory and found that WIM technology not only enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of weigh station operations but also largely reduces travel delay for trucking companies. The effects of truck demand, truck weight distribution, static scale service time, WIM accuracy, and sorting threshold on weigh station operations have been analyzed. The author shows the importance of transponders in a WIM mainline weigh station operation. The author also proves that the increase of storage spaces within a weigh station may largely increase truck travel delay and does not significantly improve weigh station operations.
This research focuses on the development of floating-threshold algorithms. Since the number of trucks, particularly heavy trucks, has increased rapidly in recent decades, many weigh stations cannot meet the demand even when equipped with WIM systems. This problem is complicated by the fact that truck demands, truck weight distribution, and static scale service time vary by time of day and day of week. The author designed floating-threshold algorithms to automatically adapt to high truck demand and the varying of truck demand, truck weight distribution, and static scale service time, over time. When the queue at the weigh station is long, the threshold value is increased so as to avoid the closure of the weigh station while still catching the worst weight limit offenders. When the queue is short, the threshold value is lowered to increase the number of trucks inspected. Both the traditional fixed-threshold strategy and two floating-threshold strategies were modeled and tested using a microscopic simulation model. The results show that floating-threshold strategies are both more effective in weight enforcement and more efficient for heavy traffic flow and high-variance environments. The finding that different floating-threshold strategies have different effects indicates that it is necessary to make a further study on floating-threshold algorithms
The Impact of Tourism on Curacao's Economy: A Scenario Approach
No full textCuraçao is an autonomous countrywithin the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The governmentwants to support tourism development. However,various development strategies are possible. This articlepresents four scenarios of marketing and investmentstrategies that will affect the number of tourists fromThe Netherlands and North America (USA and Canada)in different ways. A multiplier model was used to calculatethe economic impacts of the four scenarios. Bydoing so, this article shows how the government’s decisionto support particular marketing and investmentstrategies may have certain outcomes for the number ofjobs in Curaçao’s tourism industry
Model Validation and New Water Control Strategies in Drinking Water Treatment Plant Wim Mensink
No full textStimela is an environment for standardized mathematical models of drinking water treatment processes. It can be used to predict the future water treatment situation which may happen or change. In water treatment plant Wim Mensink, the Stimela model train was set up to compare with other alternative water control strategies. Before starting the work of developing new water control strategies with Stimela model, Stimela model for Wim Mensink must be validated so that the model can be seen as a reliable and stable tool for the next work. Before the validation work, the current water control strategy for the treatment process needs to be investigated clearly to fulfil all the input control information is correct. Besides this, an experiment for obtaining the measured results of pellet diameters over different layers was performed in Wim Mensink. The validation work starts with single pellet softening process for three different reactors over first month from January 20th to February 20th. The fluidized bed height, pressure drop over total height of reactor, pellet diameters and porosities are validated. After that, the validation work is integrated with whole water treatment system to prove the function of pellet softening reactor and the four important water quality parameters over two important locations (after weir aerator location and final RO mixing location). The validated results of softening process are analysed by the relative error way to prove the reliability of the model results compared with measured results. The final step of the thesis work is developing the new water control strategies to optimize the current control plans of Wim Mensink. Five different water control strategies are put forward. They can be either reached separately according to their own advantages and limitations or fulfil with a step by step order as a whole optimization process. Moreover, the other water control strategies developed by engineering consultancy company DHV are evaluated here with Stimela model so that they can be proved reliable and achievable. In the future, the application of Stimela model will be spread over all the drinking water treatment plants in the Netherlands and contributes to the central automated control as a drinking water treatment operator training simulator.Sanitary EngineeringWatermanagementCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Use of Axle Load Spectra (ALS) for Estimating Calibration Drift in Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) Systems
No full textThis analysis's main objective is to determine WIM system errors based on axle loading without physically performing WIM equipment performance validation using test trucks. The presented methodology can be used to estimate systematic errors (calibration drift) in the WIM system at any point in time after the equipment calibration. This approach can help highway agencies select optimum timings for routine maintenance and calibration of WIM equipment without compromising its accuracy. The results show that the WIM accuracy for the single axle (SA) and tandem axle (TA) can be estimated with SA and TA NALS shape factors with an acceptable degree of error for bending plate (BP) and quartz piezo QP) sensors. The application and significance of the developed models were explained with the help of an example. The use of NALS to estimate the WIM system accuracy can save a significant amount of time and resources required for field validation of WIM performance every year.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Investigation of Truck Weights and Dimensions Using WIM Data
No full textAbstractThis paper presents a study carried out with extensive weigh-in-motion (WIM) data collected on the French main road network, involving 3 millions of trucks. The data were collected by three WIM stations located on highly trafficked highways and motorways, continuously over a whole year. The data were analyzed using statistical software developed by the US National Science Foundation.The trucks of the traffic flow were classified into almost 20 categories, depending on the silhouette, number and spacing of axles, body configuration (trailer/semi-trailer), type of axles (steering, driving or standard axle) and wheel or tire (single, twin, wide). The data were analyzed by category.The location of the centre of gravity of the payload was calculated and the variability of its abscissa along the vehicle was analyzed in each category. The loading patterns and behavior were analyzed and the results reported here for 5-axle articulated trucks and 2-axle rigid truck with 2-axle trailer.Then, the axle load distributions were analyzed by axle rank and truck category, and modeled with multimodal Gaussian probability distribution functions. The modes have been determined using a maximum of likelihood method. These modes are useful to design endurance tests of truck tires.These investigations provide a better knowledge about truck loading, overloads and truck aggressiveness on infrastructure, and may lead to optimization policies. In this case, the results are used directly in the domain of tyre optimization
Intensity modulated radiation therapy and arc therapy: validation and evolution as applied to tumours of the head and neck, abdominal and pelvic regions
No full textIntensiteitsgemoduleerde radiotherapie (IMRT) laat een betere controle over de dosisdistributie (DD) toe dan meer conventionele bestralingstechnieken. Zo is het met IMRT mogelijk om concave DDs te bereiken en om de risico-organen conformeel uit te sparen. IMRT werd in het UZG klinisch toegepast voor een hele waaier van tumorlocalisaties. De toepassing van IMRT voor de bestraling van hoofd- en halstumoren (HHT) vormt het onderwerp van het eerste deel van deze thesis. De planningsstrategie voor herbestralingen en bestraling van HHT, uitgaande van de keel en de mondholte wordt beschreven, evenals de eerste klinische resultaten hiervan. IMRT voor tumoren van de neus(bij)holten leidt tot minstens even goede lokale controle (LC) en overleving als conventionele bestralingstechnieken, en dit zonder stralingsgeïnduceerde blindheid. IMRT leidt dus tot een gunstiger toxiciteitprofiel maar heeft nog geen bewijs kunnen leveren van een gunstig effect op LC of overleving. De meeste hervallen van HHT worden gezien in het gebied dat tot een hoge dosis bestraald werd, wat erop wijst dat deze “hoge dosis” niet volstaat om alle clonogene tumorcellen uit te schakelen. We startten een studie op, om de mogelijkheid van dosisescalatie op geleide van biologische beeldvorming uit te testen. Naast de toepassing en klinische validatie van IMRT bestond het werk in het kader van deze thesis ook uit de ontwikkeling en het klinisch opstarten van intensiteitgemoduleerde arc therapie (IMAT). IMAT is een rotationele vorm van IMRT (d.w.z. de gantry draait rond tijdens de bestraling), waarbij de modulatie van de intensiteit bereikt wordt door overlappende arcs. IMAT heeft enkele duidelijke voordelen ten opzichte van IMRT in bepaalde situaties. Als het doelvolume concaaf rond een risico-orgaan ligt met een grote diameter, biedt IMAT eigenlijk een oneindig aantal bundelrichtingen aan. Een planningsstrategie voor IMAT werd ontwikkeld, en type-oplossingen voor totaal abdominale bestraling en rectumbestraling werden onderzocht en klinisch toegepast
Correction: Do chemistry and rheology follow the same laboratory ageing trends in bitumen?
No full text Correction to: Materials and Structures (2022) 55:146 https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-022-01986-w The article “Do chemistry and rheology follow the same laboratory ageing trends in bitumen?”, written by Georgios Pipintakos, Caitlin Lommaert, Aikaterini Varveri and Wim Van den bergh, was originally published in volume 55, issue 5, ID 146 without open access. With the society's decision to grant Open Choice the copyright of the article changed in February 2023 to © The Author(s) 2022 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Open access funding enabled and organized by RILEM.Pavement Engineerin
Front Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization, External Reviewers, List of Authors
No full textFront Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization, External Reviewers, List of Author
La escuela de Dússerdolf y el cine de Wim Wenders
No full textThe role of the photographic image in
the film by Wim Wenders has already
been extensively studied, allowing us an
isolated analysis of the picture at the
cinema, to respond to the question:
which photographic style and
influences can be found in the
filmography of Wim Wenders. From its
own self-definition as a filmmaker and
photographer, compare your images,
reviewing the genesis and links that
share w i t h t h e movement's
photographic School of Dusserdolf that
is being built in the same Germany of
Wim Wenders.
The mentors of this new photography are
marriage Becher: Bern and Hilla Becher
initiated in 1959 in Dusserdolf, and that
together with his disciples: Andreas
Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth or
Thomas Ruff, positioned at the
photography in the first line of the
current art. This fact in a author
multidisciplinary as Wim Wenders, not
you might pass unnoticed, on the
contrary; will absorb the new discourse
that proposes this School, to expound
their symptoms, thereby revealing in its
cinema an exegesis of this new proposal
photographic in dialog with the cinematic
language. All will contribute to
consolidate the image as art, erected to
the landscape as the main protagonist.El protagonismo de la imagen
fotográfica en el cine de Wim Wenders,
ya ha sido largamente estudiado,
permitiéndonos un análisis aislado de la
fotografía en su cine, que responda a la
pregunta: qué estilo fotográfico e
influencias se pueden hallar en la
filmografía de Wenders. A partir de su
propia auto-definición como cineasta y
fotógrafo, compararemos sus imágenes,
revisando las génesis y nexos que
comparten, con el movimiento
fotográfico de la Escuela de Düsserdolf
que se construye en la misma Alemania
de Wenders.
Los mentores de esta Nueva Fotografía,
son el matrimonio Becher: Bern y Hilla
Becher iniciado en 1959, en Düsserdolf,
y que junto a sus discípulos: Andreas
Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth
o Thomas Ruff, colocarán a la fotografía
en la primera línea del arte actual. Este
hecho a un autor multidisciplinar como
Wenders, no le pasará inadvertido, sino
todo lo contrario; absorberá el nuevo
discurso que propone esta Escuela, para
exponerlo en sus tomas, revelando así
en su cine una exégesis de esta nueva
propuesta fotográfica en dialogo con el
lenguaje cinematográfico. Todos ellos
contribuirán a consolidar la imagen
como arte, erigiendo al paisaje como
protagonista principal
Marketing research with SPSS / Wim Janssens ... [et al.].
No full textbusiness bookfair2016Includes bibliographical references and index.x, 441 p. :Suitable for undergraduate students studying Marketing Research.
Marketing Research provides a step-by-step treatment of the major choices facing Marketing researchers when using SPSS. Although they may have an understanding of how SPSS works, they may not understand the statistics behind the method. This book bridges the gap.
A top author team offer a concise approach to analysing quantitative marketing research data in pracice
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